Project to Upgrade the Open Glider Network to link with Pilot Aware

If you are a PilotAware user, you may be interested in a project to expand the link with the Open Glider Network to make Flarm equipped gliders visible. Don’t know if any of the local gliding sites are involved with this; it would be great if they are. Here’s a crowd-funding web-page to help sites get on board: justgiving.com/crowdfunding/gliderconspicuity Yes, everyone using ADS-B would be better, but in the meantime….

Down on the Farm

I have always said to Richard that most people will not care about the goings on at Bristell and here but he said people would find it interesting. I am not so sure, so if you think it is boring/advertising etc LET me know.

This month:-

G-STLL Bristell NG5, the first of the UK planes was over 5 years old and has been exported to New Zealand. We pulled the wings off about 3 weeks ago, cleaned it up to remove any mud etc. I polished and hoovered it out and loaded spares and tools inside. I built a transport frame for the wings and horizontal tail plane. The whole lot was shipped in a 40 foot container which was lowered to ground level with 2 hydraulic cranes either end and we had an hour to load (if it had been more the client would have had to pay something like £90 and hour more). We finished loading in 55 mins and then we had the fun of getting the truck back down the lane (he got out, JUST)

The wing transport frame in position

The wood used had to be treated for beasties (New Zealand rules are very strict, if you watched the television programmes!! We screwed it down, lashed it down and jammed between the walls. We better wait a couple of months to see if it gets there in 1 piece!!

The fuselage in position

Klemm L25C G-ACXE

I have just taken over a 49% share of this project and Jim Copeman (the other 49%) and I are in the process of building the Pobjoy Cataract 3 engine to go in it. The wings and fuselage will be transported to the farm once the weather gets better and the engine has progressed as far as possible. The rotating and reciprocating parts have been sent off to Deltair for NDT i.e. Magna fluxing. We are concentrating on the cylinders at present. The other 2% is owned by the son of the builder who died 2 years ago. I will give some history in later editions.

When I first read about the proposed EASA pilot licensing rule change to discount hours for the purposes of revalidation flown on non-EASA (annex 2) aircraft , I was reminded of Terry Gilliam’s film, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. It is set in revolutionary France; the Age of Reason. The eponymous Baron infuriates officialdom by not fitting in with their notion of ‘rationality’. These are the people who tried to give the world a decimal calendar, and it seems they are alive and well and working for EASA! Well, I’m sure that rule-change would fit with some sort of bureaucratic aesthetic of consistency ( “foolish consistency the hobgoblin of little minds”, according to Ralph Waldo Emerson). However the effect on the European fleet of annex 2 aircraft would be disastrous!

University of Brighton Aeronautical Society – Students’ Video

Here’s a video produced by University of Brighton aeronautical engineering students showing off the simulators that are being developed there. OK, it’s not the BBC, but it shows some interesting stuff.

These guys are keen, and would jump at the opportunity of flights in LAA aircraft.

Brize-Norton Airspace Grab

Not only is the ability to fly GA in the UK being chipped away by the destruction of airfields, they are now out to grab the air. There is a proposal by a company acting on behalf of Brize-Norton and Oxford Airport to take out a large area of class G, creating seriously concerning pinch points in heavily traversed airspace. Here’s a briefing on the issues by our Chief Exec. Steve Slater in Pilot Magazine: http://www.pilotweb.aero/features/brize-norton-airspace-grab-1-5405632

Upcoming Events

For the latest list of events, go to the Events page on the Strut website.